“Fell into a sea of grass And disappeared among The shady blades”

May 24, 2015

Jane's Addiction

“Fell into a sea of grass
And disappeared among
The shady blades”

The annual Carb Day concert is not one that I generally hang around for, often I either leave the speedway before it even starts or stay and watch just a couple of songs from whoever the headliner happens to be, before ducking out and avoiding what is generally a drunken free for all with a large percentage of drunken hilljacks. This year I braved the madness for a couple of reasons, one was that one of my favorite bands had somehow been selected to be the headliner, Jane’s Addiction and two I had a VIP access that allowed me stagefront access and some separation from the mayhem.

Rarely do two of my greatest passions align like they did at Carb Day this year, Indy Car Racing and an amazing band that is one of my all-time favorites together, it was just about a perfect day. 

.38 Special

The carb day show was about the strangest three band bill that I have ever seen, opening act O.A.R. followed by 80s rockers .38 Special and then Jane’s Addiction. These bands have very little if anything in common, have totally different fan bases representing not only completely different eras and music styles. I thought it seemed like a potential disaster when I first saw the line-up, but was wonderfully surprised that it worked pretty well.

O.A.R.

O.A.R. started things out and I must say that they were way better than I expected and the people in the audience really seemed to enjoy it, even the old 80s rockers of who there were many. I think the majority of the crowd was probably there to see .38 Special as there were plenty of hard-drinking, hard-living 80s metal relics with their long greying frizzy hair and beer bellys in the crowd.

When .38 Special hit the stage, looking much like the majority of the crowd themselves, the place erupted. The radio-friendly 80s rock was a big hit and many of the crowd seemed to know every song and enjoyed themselves mightily. I was not immune to the familiar songs such as “Hold On Loosely” that the band cranked out.  It wasn’t what I was there for but it had its own charm.

.38 Special

When their set ended, I expected many in the crowd to head out as well as clearly they were there for .38 Special. Some did leave, but many more stayed and those who may not have been all that familiar with Jane’s Addiction were in for a real treat as the delivered an amazing high-powered show that was as good or better than the many previous times that I have seen them live.

The set was full of their classic songs from the late 80s and early 90s and the band looked and sounded better than ever. Unlike when they were at their prime and possibly under the influence of who knows what, now they are fit, clean and sober and clearly on top of their game. The band’s influence on rock history had never been fully appreciated and their incredible stage presence and iconic sound were in full evidence.

They totally won over the skeptical older .38 Special fans and the show was simply fantastic. Being so close was pretty cool as well as Perry Ferrell practically jumped on top of me as he leap into the crowd, grabbing hats off various crowd members and trying them on for size all while belting out some of my favorite Janes classics including, Three Days, Classic Girl, Summertime Rolls, Been Caught Stealing and more.

http://janesaddiction.com/

Call In Sick for Carb Day

May 23, 2015

 

Gerard, Evelyn, Kevin,Thor, Pat & Mark

Michael & Jax

Call In Sick for Carb Day

The final practice day for the Indianapolis 500 has traditionally been known as Carb Day even though the cars participating have not had actual carburetors for decades. In fact calling the day a practice day is in itself a stretch as there is technically only an hour set aside for the cars to be on the track. In reality Carb Day represents so much more though, it has traditionally been a day for people to sneak away from work or school and spend a day at the speedway where all sorts of entertainment options abound.

Mark

Ryan Briscoe

This year a t-shirt appeared for sale at the track that proclaimed “I call in sick for carb day!” which is a pretty accurate assessment of the people who show up. For me the day has always been about spending time with good friends while taking in the variety of activities that go on at the track including the practice session, the pit-stop contest, the Indy Lights race, the Miller Lite tent party, the carb day concert and more. 

Bobby Rahal

Bob from the Bob and Tom show

For many years, my buddy Pat has driven up from Evansville to meet us for carb day and once again this year he came up, this year though his brothers Gerard and Thor both joined us along with his sister Evelyn and our friends Mark and Kevin. It was the first time at our Carb day gathering for Thor and Evelyn and it was so nice to have so many members of their family and such good friends on hand to hang out.

Thor's entourage

Jason

The weather could not have been more perfect, sunny and warm with a light breeze and we had the opportunity to take a walk through the garage area as well as watch the practice, the Indy Lights race and take in the Miller Lite Carb day party, which was moved this year to the North end of the track in turn 4 (along with the Carb Day concert stage). There was still the requisite free beer and Jug’s catering food which was nice.

Gerard & Superfan

Gerard, Evelyn & Thor

The Indy Lights race was dominated by Schmidt Petersen Motorsports as they grabbed the top four positions led by Brit Jack Harvey who brought home the victory leading teammates, Ethan Ringel, Scott Anderson and RC Enerson completed a sweep of the top four positions. It was a decent race, marred by a late yellow that had the finish under yellow.

Thor

The pit-stop competition was won yet again by the top notch crew of Helio Castoneves and his team Penske cohorts. They seem to have a virtual lock on the event and are in the running just about every year. It was a fun day, wondering around the speedway, I did run in to a couple of minor celebrity types, Indiana Pacer forward Luis Scola and one of the finalists for this year’s American Idol, Jax.

Jax

Luis Scola & Michael

Colt's Pat McKafee

But most of all, it was just a day to spend enjoying close almost lifelong friends who I do not get to see nearly enough. An annual tradition that is among my favorites in the month of May in Indianapolis.

Lindy